Chilled Coriander and Yogurt Soup

2 1/2 cups        plain yogurt                                           625 mL

1 1/2 cups        packed, chopped fresh coriander,         375 mL

                        leaves and tender stems only    

1/2                   onion, finely chopped                            

1 cup                light cream                                          

3 cups              chicken stock                                       

parsley sprig for garnish           

• ln a food processor or blender, puree yogurt, coriander, onion and cream until smooth.

• Pour into a large container, add stock, and mix well.

• Cover and chill until ready to serve. Garnish with J parsley or fresh coriander.

Serves 6

How to Roast a Turkey and Other Poultry The Fastest Way

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The ritual of cooking turkey used to be a painful and an elaborate process, taking long hours of watching the clock and basting the bird, hoping that with luck, the dinner will not turn out tough and dry.
There is, however, another way to roasting that can give you perfect results in the form of a juicy and tender turkey, taking much less time to cook than our grandmothers took. The same technique can also be applied to roasting chicken, duck, goose, pheasant, or any kind of poultry.
This method is also used in fine restaurants and hotel kitchens where they cannot afford to take as much time as our ancestors did in roasting turkey. They blanch the turkey before roasting, and then roast it at a very high temperature.

Here are the steps:
First, make sure that your turkey is completely thawed, if you are starting with a frozen one.
Second, boil water in a large pot. Place the turkey in the kitchen sink, and pour the boiling water all over it to scald it thoroughly both inside the cavity and all over the skin. You will notice the skin beginning to shrink.
Next, run cool down the turkey by running cold tap water all over it, both inside and outside. Cooling it down makes it easier for you to handle it.
Pat the turkey dry with paper towels, both inside and out.
Now, you may put in the stuffing. I recommend using a cheesecloth bag. Whether or not you stuff the turkey, it isn’t necessary to sew the cavity together. Just truss the legs together. If you still have stuffing leftover, stuff it into the neck cavity, and secure it with a skewer.

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Now, put the turkey on a rack in a roasting pan. Make sure the bird is elevated so the hot air can circulate under and around it. The best kind of wire rack is the V-shaped rack specifically designed for roasting turkey. It enables you to lift the bird from the pan easily when roasting is done.

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Make sure turkey wings and thighs are not touching the roasting pan. If they are, slip pieces of aluminum foil, oiled with cooking oil, between the turkey skin and the pan.
Next, oil the entire top surface of the bird. Corn or safflower oil has less saturated fat than peanut oil or butter. Pour several tablespoonfuls into the palm of your hand, and rub it all over the turkey.

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Using a large sheet aluminum foil, make a tent that will completely seal the turkey within the roasting pan. Crimp the foil edges to the outside edges of the roasting pan, all around the entire perimeter.

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Roast at 450˚ Fahrenheit. This very hot temperature enables you to cut your roasting time virtually in half: instead of 0 minutes per pound, it will be 15 to 18 minutes per pound.
Half an hour before your roasting time is done, you need to baste your turkey for the first time. To do this, remove the aluminum foil (be careful of the hot steam inside). Reduce oven temperature to 325˚, and baste with a bulb baster, brush or spoon. Baste twice more during the final half-hour.

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The end result of this turkey will be juicy, tender, and perfect enough to make any professional chef proud. The same method works just as well for chicken and any other bird, as long as you first seal the skin with boiling water, oil the skin, place it on a rack in a roasting pan, cover with foil, and roast at 450˚. Chickens and smaller birds may need less than half and hour of uncovered browning time, 15 to 18 minutes per pound hold true no matter what size your bird is.
You will literally save hours of time, and your family and guests will rave about how tasty, tender, and juicy your perfectly roasted poultry turns out, each and every time.

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Cream of Summer Squash Soup

1 tbsp (15 mL) butter          

1 lb  (450 g)     yellow summer squash or zucchini, chopped      

1                      onion, chopped                                                 

2                      cups chicken stock                                                       

1 cup                sour cream                                                                 

pinch nutmeg

salt and freshly ground black pepper sour cream and chopped chives for garnish

1 Melt butter in a large saucepan, add squash and onion, and cook over medium-high heat until squash is tender. Add stock to mixture, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes, or until squash falls apart.

2 Remove from heat and puree until smooth. Transfer mixture to a clean saucepan, mix in cream and nutmeg, and season to taste. Reheat, garnish and serve.

Serves 4

TIP: Very hot liquids may crack some blender or food processor bowls, or may cause splattering. Check manufacturer's instructions for your appliance to determine whether you should allow hot liquids to cool somewhat before processing.

Chilled Melon and Cucumber Soup

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1          cantaloupe melon, peeled and seeded               

4          cucumbers, peeled and seeded              

2          tbsp honey     (30 mL)                                                 

2          tbsp lemon juice (30 mL)                                           

8-12     mint sprigs               

      

• In a food processor or blender, puree melon and cucumbers until smooth; strain. Add honey and lemon juice; pour mixture into a bowl, cover and set aside.

• Roughly chop mint (reserving some for garnish) and stir into pureed mixture. Let mixture stand for about 5 hours at room temperature.

• Remove chopped mint from soup, and chill until ready to serve.

   

  Serves 6

                                  

Keep Turkey Stuffing from Salmonella Bacteria

Public health officials have warned about the serious problems turkey stuffing can cause.

Each holiday season, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, there are cases of severe illness due to food poisoning caused by improper handling of turkey stuffing. The salmonella bacteria are the culprits. They like to lurk in the middle of incompletely cooked poultry, right where you put the stuffing. So never stuff the bird the night before. Stuff it only right before you roast it, and remove all the stuffing as quickly as possible after roasting. If you put the stuffing into a cheesecloth bag before you stuff it into the bird, it will be very easy to remove.

Freezing does not kill salmonella, so defrosted poultry should be treated in the same way as a fresh bird. Whenever you are working with raw poultry, remember that you may have bacteria on your hands. Once the bird is in the oven, wash your hands, utensils, and work surfaces thoroughly, in hot, soapy water. Cutting boards with porous surfaces should be scrubbed with a stiff bristle brush and disinfectant at least once a week. I recommend disinfecting with a weak bleach solution, mixed with one part liquid bleach to 10 parts water. If you have an automatic dishwasher, you may use it to clean you cutting boards, but do not let wooden boards go through the drying cycle.

We should always be careful in handling food at all times. We would hate to see anyone in the family or circle of friends suffering from food poisoning instead of enjoying the festivities of the season.

Copyright © 2009 Athena Goodlight (11/10/2009 Gomestic)

The Traditional Israeli Yemeni Breakfast

The Yemeni Jews who live in Israel have a traditional breakfast which doesn’t vary much and is almost exactly the same breakfast they used to eat before immigrating to Israel. Although there are now 2nd, 3rd and even 4th generation Yemeni Jews in Israel the traditional foods remain popular especially on a Shabbat morning.

Read more on this article by Petal

What is a Traditional Israeli Yemeni Breakfast?

Health Benefits and Recipe For Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup is actually thought of as something that people tend to make on either a cold winter night or to help soothe symptoms of the common cold or a flue bug. Studies done by scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha showed that chicken noodle soup may have an anti-inflammatory effect that could relieve symptoms of certain illnesses temporarily. This study was done in the year 2000. There were other studies done to see if chicken noodle soup really does help relieve symptoms of the common cold. The studies have concluded that this really is not known for certain whether or not chicken noodle soup acts as an anti-inflammatory effect to relieve certain symptoms.

Some of the ingredients in chicken noodle soup are proven to have positive health benefits to them.

Read more and get recipe:  Health Benefits and  Recipe For Chicken Noodle Soup

Party Food: Serving Canapes and Canape Recipes

Whether cold, hot or a mixture of both, canapes, are indispensable at a cocktail party - a bowl of crisps isn’t satisfying enough. But there’s an art to serving the correct kind of canape. They must to be easy to eat and this entails creating everything bite-size - it’s tricky to hold a conversation, hold a glass and strain to eat a messy, oversize canape or one that crumbles as soon as it’s moved up from the plate. Anything that would possibly drip isn’t a fine idea - you do not want to be held accountable for ruining your friend’s brand-new shirt. The time of year is just as important, not only in terms of the sort of food you must serve but also what would be in season. On a balmy summertime evening, light, fresh foods are suitable - figs wrapped in Parma ham, asparagus tips with a fresh aioli mayonnaise or cherry tomatoes wrapped in a basil leaf are all light and summery. During autumn and winter, canapes must be more warming up and hearty. Espresso cups filled up with a delightful home-made soup are easily both to prepare and to serve. Gordon Ramsay serves starters this way: frothy soups drizzled with truffle oil. And this is a good way to ultimately use a collection of espresso cups that have been sleeping in the cupboard.

Serving canapes prior to dinner is occasionally suitable too. Do not presume that guests can merrily wait for some time to eat - if they’ve come from work, they are perhaps hungry. With something ready to serve before dinner, even if it is just a big bowl of warmed up almonds or other nuts, would also give you more time to finish matters in the kitchen. If you’re going to create appetizers, then it’s crucial that they fit with whatever you’ll be serving, and should not be too filling as to spoil everybody’s appetite.
Here are two easy canapé recipes you can use:

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Handy Onion Canape
The ingredients are almost always available in your pantry. It may sound ordinary, but the flavor may just pleasantly surprise you.

• Place some onion rings, or thinly sliced green onions on Melba toast rounds or on any tasty cracker.
• Put a small glob of mayonnaise on each toast and cook them in a broiler until the mayonnaise sizzles.

Easy Tuna Canape

Ingredients
canned tuna
4 – 6 chopped green onions
Coarsely ground pepper
Mayonnaise

• In a bowl, mix the tuna, onions, and mayonnaise. Add ingredients a little at a time until you achieve the right thickness. Then add ground pepper according to taste.
• You may put this mix on round toasts or biscuits and broil them or you may use it as a dip with more mayonnaise added. 

Copyright © 2011 Athena Goodlight

Facts About Tofu

Tofu has two types of textures: regular and silken. Regular tofu is known simply as "tofu." It bears a fibrous, sponge like texture. Silken tofu possesses a creamier, custard-like texture. Silken and regular tofu are boxed in three different forms:
•Soft
•Firm
•Extra firm

Read more:  What is Tofu Made Of?

How to Select Melons

Whether you shake, poke or sniff them in search of perfection, ripe melons are one of the summer season’s most sensational delights.

 True, you can get them virtually year round but they’re never sweeter and juicer than in summer.  Melons of all kinds, especially the orange-flesh variety, offer unique flavor, low-calorie nutrition and lots of vitamin A.  Best of all, they take well to everything, from an appealing appetizer, such as Melons and Ham, to a mixed-fruit salad.

Melon varieties

 Honeyloupe – cream-colored rind with peach blush (avoid if waxy); sweet orange flesh.

Watermelon – mottled green skin; pink -red or yellow flesh.

Casaba – green or yellow-green hard rind; crisp, pale-green flesh.

Cantaloupe – netted skin; deep orange flesh with rich flavor.

Crenshaw – blotchy gold or yellow-green rind; tender golden flesh.

Honeydew – pale-white to yellow, smooth, hard rind; green (sometimes orange) flesh.

Selecting and storing

 Choose a melon heavy for its size with a fragrant stem end that gives under light pressure from your thumb.  (Hard melons will soften if left in a sunny spot, but they won’t get sweeter.) Once cut, melons will keep for a day or two if wrapped well in plastic and refrigerated.

Organic Spreads, Dips, and Peanut Butter Substitutes

Peanut butter has been the leading nut butter product for a long time. But the rising number of peanut allergies, including salmonella outbreak due to peanut products have caused the once lunchtime staple a great deal less appetizing. Let alone that conventional peanuts are among the most pesticide-laden crops. Fortunately, nutty food producers are formulating all types of  nutritious, tasty, and environmentally friendly alternatives.

Almond Butter

More sweet-tasting than peanut butter, almond butter contains more cholesterol-lowering monounsaturated fat, magnesium for bone-strengthening, calcium, phosphorus and antioxidant vitamin E as compared to its peanut brethren. It’s oftentimes saved from the not-so-flattering sugar and hydrogenated oils added up to several name-brand peanut butters.

To enliven plain salads, combining a teaspoon of almond butter with 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar and 1/4 cup olive oil and another 1/4 cup orange juice. Drizzle the mixture on top of your preferred greens.

Hemp Seed Butter

Verdant, earthy hemp butter is loaded down with more protein and the all important omega-3 fat alpha-linolenic acid compared to peanut butter. A late Harvard School of Public Health study indicates a diet rich in alpha-linolenic acid can cut down the risk of heart attack. And because it’s such a sturdy weed, hemp produced for seed production does not require to be bathed in chemicals to thrive. It’s savory by the spoonful, and hemp butter goes well with pure maple syrup. Smoothen the mixture onto bread, waffles, muffins, and fresh fruit.

Sunflower Seed Butter

Having a smooth texture and flavor, much like the flavor of sweet tasting peanut butter, sunflower seed butter is full of the antioxidants vitamin E and selenium, which combat against cell-damaging, disease-provoking free radicals. Many states have this butter included in their lunch programs in school since it’s safe for sufferers of peanut allergy. For frugal foodies, you’d be glad to know that sunflower butter is sensibly inexpensive. Blend together 3/4 cup sunflower butter, two garlic cloves, one cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, one can garbanzo beans, and one teaspoon cumin seeds to create a zesty hummus.

These are just the three alternatives to peanut butter for those who suffer from peanut allergies. We all know that the incidence of allergic reaction is on the rise, that’s why the next installment will include other alternatives that will surely be as palatable as those mentioned here.

Ways to Enjoy Roasted Garlic

Set aside your newly roasted garlic to cool down a bit. Be sure it is still warm when serving. Use your fingers to squeeze out the now soft garlic out of their paper skins.
·           Spread roasted garlic onto bread dipped in olive oil or add it up to cream cheese
·           Use it on whatever pasta dish. Put some olive oil, broccoli and Parmesan cheese.
·           Use roasted garlic on your sauces like gravy, spaghetti sauce or on your salad dressing. You can likewise add it to mayonnaise or softened butter.
·           Roasted garlic substitutes the use of raw garlic on your favorite soup. The taste is greatly improved.
·           Add to any sort of cooked vegetables like broccoli,  asparagus, artichokes, greens and  on mashed potatoes
·           Relish it as is, squeeze out and pop one to your mouth.
Storage
1.         Should there be any extra roasted garlic, you can wrap it in foil, intact in its husk and put insude the fridge
2.         Squeeze them out from husk, store in a jar then add adequate olive oil to cover them. Place inside refrigerator. This will stretch its shelf life for about 4-5 days. Careful not to use after more than 5 days old of this roasted garlic and olive oil combined. Botulism toxin occurs in a few perfect conditions.
Before you indulge
There are no known health hazards or side effects for normal levels of garlic consumption. For those with tender stomach, ingesting garlic could lead to gastrointestinal distress. Frequent contact includes isolated cases of allergic skin reaction. Do not mix medicinal doses with high blood pressure medications or with blood thinners, including aspirin, taken for heart-attack prevention. Garlic’s anti-clotting action could lead to problems for those with existing clotting disorders.